Xref: utzoo can.politics:1517 misc.taxes:552
Newsgroups: can.politics,misc.taxes
Path: utzoo!lsuc!dave
From: dave@lsuc.uucp (David Sherman)
Subject: Re: unintelligible legislation
Date: Mon, 21-Mar-88 04:35:33 EST
Message-ID: <1988Mar21.043537.8602@lsuc.uucp>
Distribution: can
References: <1988Feb27.225704.29588@lsuc.uucp> <490@xios.XIOS.UUCP> <944@micomvax.UUCP>
Organization: Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto

In article <944@micomvax.UUCP>, ray@micomvax.UUCP (Ray Dunn) writes:
> In article <1988Mar14.185306.19552@lsuc.uucp> dave@lsuc.uucp (David Sherman)
> writes:
> >
> >(By the way, 3 people sent me their interpretations of what the
> >provision says. The only correct one was gordan@maccs, Gordan Palameta.)
>                           ^^^^^^^ 
> 
> Does this mean it coincided with an official published interpretation, or is
> Dave saying "the only one which coincided with my (Dave's) interpretation",

Both, since my interpretation happens to be correct.  I can't
fault the people who got it wrong, since they don't have the
context to work with (the rest of the statute) and they aren't
experienced at reading the Income Tax Act.  There's really no
issue as to what the law is here; that's explained in plenty
of secondary sources.  What's tricky is figuring out how the
statute says what you think it's supposed to say.

> Are we on dangerous ground here?  Is Dave liable for the opinions he
> publishes on the tax laws?  Should he be making disclaimers?  Can he make
> disclaimers when he explicitly states that he is a tax consultant??  etc.

Given that I've publicly stated my qualifications as a lawyer
and a tax expert, yes, if I give advice that suggests people should
act on it, I might well be liable.  I try to make sure to
qualify my public statements so that they give general information
rather than specific advice.  I stated in my first posting of
tax tips, a while back, that the tips were for general advice only
and that a professional should be consulted on specific problems.

I would think I'm in exactly the same position as any tax expert
who writes for a newspaper.

Of course, when I give people specific advice, for a fee,
that's another matter entirely.  Then they're entitled to
expect, if not perfection, at least a standard of care appropriate
for tax experts giving advice for a fee.

David Sherman
-- 
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